White Sox 4, Padres 0: All The Small Things Lead to a Big Win in San Diego

In baseball, the little things can lead to big moments.

A scoreless game through five innings. The Chicago White Sox offense broke through against Michael King in the sixth inning. They added insurance in the seventh to beat the San Diego Padres, 4-0. The winning streak extends to five games, their longest of the season.

After Tristan Peters drew a one-out walk in the sixth inning, Andrew Benintendi decided to bunt for a hit. It wasn’t ideal as Benintendi popped it up towards third base, but Manny Machado was shifted closer to the shortstop. That allowed Benintendi’s bunt to land safely for an infield single. Munetaka Murakami followed with a soft grounder towards first base, but old friend Gavin Sheets only had a play at first base. With two outs and runners in scoring position, the table was set for Miguel Vargas.

On a 2-0 sweeper, Vargas caught the pitch off the end of his bat. But it had enough loft to land in right field despite a 64.8 MPH exit velocity. Both Peters and Benintendi scored, and the White Sox were up 2-0.

In the seventh inning, Chase Meidroth singled to get things started and reached third base when Sam Antonacci roped a double down the right field line. With no outs, Edgar Quero just needed to focus on making good contact in play to drive in another run. He capitalized by hitting a hard grounder past a diving Jake Cronenworth to score Mediroth.

With gutsy Antonacci on third, Peters laid down a sacrifice bunt towards first base. Sheets only had one play, which was to first base. Antonacci scored, and the White Sox had a four-run cushion.

That was made possible by how great Sean Burke looked on the mound. He only threw 88 pitches, but Burke lived in the strike zone, posting 66 strikes. His constant attack on Padres hitters resulted in six scoreless innings, during which he allowed four hits and one walk while striking out eight.

Burke’s slider against righties was super effective. He generated five whiffs on 10 swings. His Called Strike Whiff Rate was 53% for the game. Four-seam fastball velocity averaged 94.7 MPH, which was above his season average of 93.9 MPH.

Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless seventh inning as he continued his impressive run of effectiveness. With six outs to go, White Sox manager Will Venable decided to see how far Grant Taylor could go on 35 pitches. The eighth inning was smooth, but Taylor got himself into trouble in the ninth.

Taylor allowed a single to Jackson Merrill and then threw a wild pitch in the dirt. With Merrill advancing to second base, Taylor walked Machado and Xander Bogaerts. At one point, Taylor threw seven consecutive balls to load the bases with no outs.

A dicey situation with Sheets batting. Venable stuck with Taylor, and on a 2-2 count, his curve was originally called a ball. But Quero used an ABS challenge, and Taylor’s curve barely got in the strike zone. That little margin of success was Taylor’s final batter of the game. Venable called for his closer, Seranthony Dominguez, who got Miguel Andujar to fly out and struck out Luis Campusano to end the game.

Game Notes

• Sean Burke's season ERA is now 2.72
• Sam Antonacci went 2-for-4. He's now batting .271 with a .826 OPS
• Tristan Peters went 1-for-1 with a bunt single, walk, and a sacrifice RBI
• Seranthony Dominguez picked up his eighth save, which that total already exceeds the 2025 team lead held by Jordan Leasure who had seven.

Record: 16-17 | Box Score | Baseball Savant